First, I want to say that it has been a most inspiring year. The choir has performed quite a lot of pieces for services and the most during Music Sunday since I came to work at UUCT eight years ago. They are truly the muse behind my arrangements and compositions, and I am in the process of preparing countless choral scores for publishing thanks to them. It does not matter how difficult the piece; they are willing to spend the time and effort to give it their best and successfully render a meaningful performance to the congregation time after time. I am most thankful and honored to do worship with them and to the congregation for their support of the music program without which we could not support our two section leaders and countless guess musicians. Sarah Gorman graduated this year; we wish her the best in her next chapter of her life. Marcus Stadlmueller wants to try his luck in film acting in Atlanta, after spending a restful year after graduation here in Tallahassee figuring out where to venture next. We will miss their beautiful voices! We will have two new section leaders join us when rehearsals start again mid-August.
Meanwhile, starting June 5th in room L, Wednesdays from 7:00 – 8:00 pm, I will be offering a class on vocal production and sight-singing using Sargam, which is an Indian musical system of assigning syllables to pitches. It is very similar to the Western Solfege system in that it is based on the major scale and that syllables are assigned to different notes of the scale to learn the notes and become fluent in reading music. Like the song “Do, re, mi” in the Sound of Music we will be learning this new set of syllables that originated in India through sacred scripture, very much like the Western system of Solfege. This class is open to anyone in the congregation who wishes to learn how to read music more fluently while also working on sound production and vocal technique.
About the author
Angel de Armendi, Music Director
Angel (he/she/they/any) received his Bachelor of Music degree from New World School of the Arts and continued his study of piano performance at Florida International University. He made his way to Tallahassee through the Music Theory graduate program at FSU. While in school he diversified his piano skills accompanying FSU and Tallahassee City Ballet dance classes. His interest in vocal coaching took him to the Asolo Song Festival in Italy during two summers, as Assistant Director/Pianist and Composer In Residence. In Tallahassee, he also directs the High Holy Days Choir at Temple Israel, and has been their regular pianist since 2008. His love for sacred music and practice has motivated him to go through and graduate in 2015 from the Music Leadership Credentialing Program, offered by the Unitarian Universalist Musicians’ Network. During their 2015 conference in Boston he was unanimously elected as Board Member at Large for the Board of Trustees, a three-year voluntary commitment. He is deeply committed to building a thriving music program at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tallahassee.